


Cakes, Candles and Camaraderie

by eltanin-malfoy (GammaDraconis)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Birthday, Birthday Party, Canon Compliant, Comedy, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Nervous Draco Malfoy, Other, Pining Draco Malfoy, Post-Hogwarts, Reader-Insert, Romance, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GammaDraconis/pseuds/eltanin-malfoy
Summary: He felt a sudden prodding at his shoulder and looked to his side and saw Theo digging into his skin. “Christ, mate, are you trying to poke a hole through my shirt? ‘S expensive.” He sat up straight again and crossed his arms, while Theo just sighed. “You seemed a little... out of it. Very vacant. Was testing to see if you’d gone to sleep with your eyes wide like that.” Draco rolled his eyes. “I’m just fine. Kind of zoned out.” Theo smirked oddly and Draco crinkled his nose in suspicion. “What is it?” “I saw you staring at Y/N, with those... come hither eyes.”orYour birthday's coming up and you hate birthday parties. Draco wants to change that.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Reader, Draco Malfoy/You
Comments: 10
Kudos: 75





	Cakes, Candles and Camaraderie

**Author's Note:**

> Song recs for you while you read this fic: Sunflower, Vol. 6 - Harry Styles, February 3rd - Jorja Smith, Secret Door - Arctic Monkeys, Tout Oublier - Angèle.

“What are birthday parties good for? Not knowing where to look once everyone started singing as you cut your cake? Feeling self-conscious and having to pay loads of money for every little detail? Or is it paying for clothes you know you’ll never wear again? Or perhaps even having to talk to people and acting like you love what they chose to gift you?

“And what is it all for? To celebrate being a year closer to death? Oh, pish posh!”

Draco stared at you, eyes narrowed as you went on with your diatribe. It was so foreign to him somehow, someone complaining about birthday parties. He’d had a celebration for that special day of his every single year without fail. On his first birthday, his parents dressed him up in a poofy, blue robe much too dignified for an infant and paraded him around their close family and friends. Some of it must have been to ‘show off the new heir’, but must’ve also been (at least, partly) just so that they had an abundance of embarrassing baby pictures of him in that atrocity. And his most recent one was much the opposite, with all his overexcited friends thinking that a lapdance from a stripper (at a surprise party in his _ own _ home, that too) was an appropriate twenty-second birthday present.

Sure, birthday parties weren’t all  _ perfect _ , but they were definitely enjoyable. You were surrounded by people whose existences you actually cared about ( _ most _ of the time) and they all got together to gift you things which they think you might like. And of course, usually, people were too nice to say anything bad about you to your face on the day. So, cheers all around. 

But clearly, you were very vocal in your opinion of the absolute opposite. Thankfully now, you’d finally paused and were smiling, perhaps even apologetically, at Pansy, who was now very obviously confused. This conversation had only really started because the group had started talking about parties in general, at Pansy’s own annual celebration. You’d made her feel like an idiot, hadn’t you?

“No! I-I didn’t mean it like that! It was more just sort of- like, um. I’m a little tipsy and I really shouldn’t have gone off on a tangent there,  _ god _ .” You lowered your eyebrows and tucked your chin up slightly, sparking everyone else to laugh. And you did too. You were quite adorable laughing, Draco thought. He allowed himself to chuckle a little too, watching you glance at everyone quickly, eyes stopping to meet his own for a couple of seconds before you looked back at Pansy. 

“Well, it’s just why I never have my own birthday parties. I suppose I do have a strong opinion about it, but that’s just.. what it is.” You shrugged and looked over at Pansy again, squinting the slightest bit and biting down on your lower lip. Your body language was telling and the years his parents had spent trying to get him to master detecting it seemed to be paying off. You were nervous, understandably so, after badmouthing birthday parties at a birthday party. But your eyeing Pansy, it was.. perplexing, to say the least. Sure, she was definitely your closest friend here but did you always look at her after speaking up or cracking a joke because of that reason, or was it because you were attracted to her? It was horrifyingly unclear.

You’d only been introduced to their friend group because Pansy and you had grown close at work in the first place. It was very possible. Maybe you’d even only been nice to her in the first place because you fancied her. She was a pretty girl. And who’d know better than him? He’d done an awful job in bed with her on multiple occasions (as a  _ teenager _ , alright? Give the lad a break.). And today, she’d even made a bit of a show of her assets, that short dark hair of hers was curled, lips were blood red and her face was sculpted to the gods. Oh, and, not to mention, the neckline on that dress of hers was enchantingly low. Sure, he appreciated it ( _ aesthetically _ , please! Draco isn’t even _ that much _ of a creep. He just notices.. things..), as he supposed most of their women loving friends did but did you too? The way others might? 

It made the near-invisible strands of hair lining his arms stand on end and he swallowed. God, he hoped you didn’t fancy her. He had no chance in front of Pansy, no matter how handsome he thought he was. He fiddled with the cuffs of his dress shirt sleeves, leaning back into his chair. Sharp cheekbones and long legs weren’t a definite cure to being insecure, it seems. Wait, Pansy had long legs too.  _ God _ , couldn’t he just have a few things to himself? 

He felt a sudden prodding at his shoulder and looked to his side and saw Theo digging into his skin. “Christ, mate, are you trying to poke a hole through my shirt? ‘S expensive.” He sat up straight again and crossed his arms, while Theo just sighed. “You seemed a little... out of it. Very vacant. Was testing to see if you’d gone to sleep with your eyes wide like that.” Draco rolled his eyes. “I’m just fine. Kind of zoned out.” Theo smirked oddly and Draco crinkled his nose in suspicion. “What is it?” “I saw you staring at Y/N, with those... come hither eyes.”

Draco felt his ears burning and he tried to convincingly roll his eyes. “It’s nothing like that. Come on.” He shook his head and looked to the side, bringing his hand to his ear to feel for how warm they’d become. “Hey, I don’t blame you. I remember the last time you bragged to us about a fun night at a bird’s was a long while ago.” He wasn’t much too wrong, there. Theo soon turned back to the conversation and Draco looked over at Pansy and then you. Both of you had seemingly taken your leave from speaking with the rest of the gang and seemed very engaged in conversing with one another. 

Life was so unfair! It was so cruel of his mother to not let him go until she’d convinced him to wear the shirt his father had bought him. (White wasn’t really his colour, but what kind of son would he be to not even listen to a request as simple as that?) It was not his fault he got to the party a little later than he would’ve liked to and that he missed the chance to grab a seat next to you. And now, he could only really pretend he wasn’t watching you from afar. He put a spoonful of the black forest cake Pansy had so generously _ ordered _ for the party and let himself sneak a peek at your plate. Did you like it too? Was this your favourite kind of-

“Anyways, I should probably get going now, everyone. Don’t want to get home too late.” You picked your plate up and rose, and so did a couple of others (of course,  _ Pansy _ too). He nodded and decided to leave himself. With the one he’d been wanting to see the most leaving, Draco didn’t see much of a point of him staying any longer. He got up himself, watching after you as you walked to the kitchen and soon returned, smoothing a hand through your hair. He smiled, and you seemed to notice because you made eye contact with him and smiled right back.  _ Aw _ .

He walked over a little closer to you, fidgeting with the cuffs on his sleeves yet again. “Nice to see you again.” “Right back at you.” He held his hand out for you to shake and even though he’d been fully expecting you to, he gulped and relished in the feeling of your smaller hands against his own. “So, I’ll see you soon, yeah?” You muttered, obviously trying to avoid common small talk. Admirable. “Bye, everyone!” You called out and everyone nodded, waving back at you. You gave Draco one last smile before you headed out of Pansy’s apartment, most likely to apparate back home. 

He walked back to the kitchen in search of Pansy, and he was pleased to see her right there, by the sink, where he placed his own now empty plate. She was swishing her wand at the many dirty dishes her guests had left her to clean, charming them to be soaped, scrubbed, rinsed and then put away. “I’m going to get going then, Pans.” She finished up with her wand and put it away, turning around to face him. Wow, how had her makeup managed to remain intact this long? Was it thanks to glamour charms? Special potions, maybe? 

“You can’t leave yet, Draco. I had something I wanted to discuss with you and everyone else.”   
“Something that doesn’t concern Y/N..? I thought the two of y-”   
“No, we can’t tell her, because I wanted to discuss doing something for Y/N.”

Was Pansy going to admit she had feelings for you with them or something? That would be awful! Or, perhaps, she was trying to set you up with one of her friends. Hey, he was one of her friends. Maybe she wanted to set you and Draco up together? That would be quite a bit more enjoyable. “Right..” He managed out, walking back out to the rest of them. 

There in the living room, on the sofa and the chairs spread around it, were all his old friends he’d stayed in touch with. Goyle, Blaise, Theo, Daphne, Tracey, Millicent and Sally. “You guys having fun?” He said, stepping back to his empty chair in between Theo and Goyle’s. Y/N must have felt like such an outsider among them, he realised only now. But at least you seemed comfortable around Pansy. Hopefully not too much, but just enough for him to assume it was just platonic. 

They answered back in slight nods and murmurs, too absorbed in talking among each other to pay him much mind. And he was fine with it. He needed to devise a plan to get between you and Pansy and soon. And to figure out whether you liked him. And to then understand whether you were attracted to men at all in the first place, and then if he was your type. Oh, and, then to learn how to best woo you. It was quite a lot for him to work on. 

“Draco! I said, are you _ listening _ to me?” He got out of his daze and looked over at the source of the noise to see Pansy glaring at him the slightest bit. “Y-yeah. I am.” She sighed and got back to her monologue, droning on about something that sounded like ‘cake’, ‘ice cream’ and ‘fireworks’. “Wait, what are we talking about again?” Pansy glowered at him and he sat up straight, growing slightly alarmed and very fearful of her. 

“We’re talking about holding a surprise party for Y/N, you idiot.”

“Alright, alright, don’t have to get all mad about it. But.. you’re starting to plan for it, at your own birthday party?” 

“That little speech of hers made it clear she needs to be shown a good time. And, there’s no time better than the present, is there? Her birthday’s in two weeks.”

“I.. suppose. Carry on.”   
  
How didn’t he remember that? He listened along this time around, nodding over at Pansy and even speaking up when he thought he should. But maybe, just the one thing he said near the end of the night, he never should have said. But then again, how else was he supposed to prove his worth to you? If he could convince you to like birthday parties, maybe he could convince you to go out with him too.   
  
“You know, Pansy? I think you’ve been busy for much too long now planning all of our parties. I think it’s time I supervise this one.”

***

Draco had been seriously underestimating Pansy’s efforts this whole time. He’d thought all of this was a real piece of cake, pun unintended. The few parties he’d planned for his own birthdays weren’t much work, but that was also due to the fact that his own home worked delightfully well as a party location, his mother always helped him plan and his house-elves cooked the menu. But supervising everything by one’s self, it was no cakewalk. (again, pun  _ un _ intended)

He’d had to pick out a venue (his family’s holiday home in Cornwall), a time (7 pm onwards on the Saturday before your birthday), a theme (semi-formal?) and a menu (Chinese soup dumplings, fish curry bangers and mash, mince pies and vanilla sponge cake, you liked a little bit of everything, he’d been told. And it was a safer plan than any other to be so general with food). But that wasn’t the end of it, not even close. Setting everything up and coming up with a scheme for the actual day itself was also much too difficult.

“I say we have someone say they’re going to take Y/N out for the night and then go there instead.”   
“Goyle... That’s the obvious course of action. We  _ have _ to do that. We’ve decided that already.”

“Oh, okay, Pansy.”

Poor bloke. He was never much too bright and Pansy loved making fun of him for it. Draco shrugged at him and looked over the list in his hand. Streamers, balloons, party games and everything of the like. “Right, so, you guys will buy all of this and bring it over to my place tonight?” Pansy nodded. “Yep. We’ll be there. But what about the plan for tomorrow? Who do you think should take Y/N out?”

“I mean, you probably should, Pansy.” Blaise spoke up and she smiled over at him. “Yeah, probably. But what do you think, Draco?” It made sense for Pansy to do it. She was the closest to Y/N out of all of them and was probably the best at persuading others into doing what she wanted them to do. But if Y/N was attracted to her, it wouldn’t help his chances at all. He looked down, pretending to be lost in thought. “I don’t know.. Is it the best idea?”   
“Well, obviously it is. The rest of you have yet to spend much time with Y/N one on one, so it’d make sense for me to ask. The rest of you are awful liars too and-”   
“I’m not that bad a liar.”   
“Yeah, you’re not  _ that _ bad. I’m a very good liar.”   
“Christ, Pansy, don’t have to get all fired up about it.”

She huffed and looked over at Draco, fiddling with the hem of her trousers. “Yeah, yeah, sorry, I s’pose.” Draco couldn’t help but agree with Pansy. It did make the most sense. “Fine, you can do it.” “Yes!” She seemed oddly triumphant, which made Draco feel the slightest bit more suspicious. There wasn’t already something between the two, was there? He gulped. Oh, how badly he hoped you didn’t like her like  _ that _ .

***

The time had come. Pansy was off getting you to the party and the house was set. Streamers and decorations of every which colour were all over the place. He’d done his best to keep everything looking as immaculate as it could, the colours all complementary and beautiful. Everything had to be perfect, for you. He’d spent a while making sure all the food was up to the mark, getting on everyone else’s nerves. But what could he say? Thankfully, no one (other than perhaps Theo) suspected much. They just thought he was a perfectionist. 

The lights were all off and everyone was hidden in every which corner of the living room, awaiting their arrival. Draco was practically shaking in his hiding place, right by the largest sofa. He held his breath as he heard keys outside the front door, slowly slipping into the keyhole. He swallowed thickly as he heard the door click open. Soon enough, the two of you walked in and Pansy turned the lights on. All of them stood up quickly and exclaimed. “Surprise!”

You were clearly a little shocked, standing with your hand over your heart and your eyes wide as they all stood up and walked over to you. Your face was the slightest bit flushed and he couldn’t help but think it was the cutest thing ever. You weren’t dressed as well as you were the other night, today just sporting a casual pair of jeans and a t-shirt. This kind of surged his confidence, because if that was what you thought to wear for some time with Pansy, maybe you actually didn’t fancy her. Maybe things could turn out alright?

And he couldn’t help but hope that what you wished for as you blew out the candles on your cake was him. Even if it was the slightest bit ambitious of him.

***

The night was over soon. After all, time did fly when you were having fun. And how wouldn’t he be having fun if the person he was trying very hard to build up the courage to actively pursue was near him, and thanking him for the night? You were much too sweet and Draco knew it.

It was nearly one o’clock in the morning when everyone finally started leaving. The party was supposed to last a little later than that, but everyone seemed pretty exhausted after having spent so much of the day helping clean, decorate and cook for the party. Sure, they didn’t have to do that much physical work but even doing as much spellwork as they had was certainly mentally tiring. Everyone attempted to help him clear up, but he knew he’d have to bear the brunt of it himself. 

He was by his living room, watching as his friends each stepped into the fireplace one by one (or in couples, in the case of Tracey and Sally). Pansy had made him invite some of her own colleagues so Y/N could know more of the guests who came. And well, he listened. He didn’t want you feeling left out. But as he saw the last of his guests leave out of the fireplace, he was a bit stunned to see that you were still there.

“Hi.”   
“Hey.”

Your smile was sweet. He wanted to kiss it off your face. 

“Aren’t you going to head out? It’s late. Do you want me to drop you? With all the gifts and everything? I get that you think it might-”   
“No, I.. I wanted to say thank you.”

He bit his lip, thanking the fact that you had decided to interrupt him. He would’ve gone on and on if you hadn’t. God, he was nervous. He shoved his hands in his pockets to hide how his hands had started to tremble.    
  
“It was Pansy’s idea, actually.”   
“I-I know. But you did everything, right? And this is your place too, no?”   
“Yes, but um.. it was just... I mean, we’re friends, right?”   
“Yeah.”   
“Yeah, because we’re friends.”   
  
He knew his ears were a bright red just from how he could feel them heating up. He looked down at you, hoping you wouldn’t notice.

“Um.. thank you so much. This was really, really sweet of you.”   
“It was... nothing. Honestly. All of the others helped me so much.”

“Come on, you don’t have to be modest.”

You reached over and set a hand on his forearm. He suddenly felt so very thankful he was wearing a full-sleeved shirt.   
  
“Well, did it- uh... was it the best birthday party you’ve ever had?”   
“Oh, for sure. But to be honest, that day, when I went on about not liking birthday parties, it’s also because I kind of prefer more.. Intimate, private sort of things. With people I’m close with, you know?”   
“Right.”   
  
Did you know how much it sounded like you were dropping hints for him? He was hoping he wasn’t reading too much into it.    
  
“Y/N, could I ask you something, then?”

“Um, sure, go ahead.”   
“On your actual birthday, next week, do you want to… go out?”

“I think I’ve celebrated quite enough for my birthday already, you know?”   
“No, I mean.. uh… just the two of us?”   
“Just the two of us? Like on a date?”

“Sure. Um.. if you want it to be.”

“If I want it to be?”   
“I’d want it too! I mean.. Yeah.”

“I’d love that.”

Oh my god. Draco would happily run into the fireplace right now. This was much too good to be true. You walked up a little closer to him, eyes flitting around his frame as he practically froze. Were you... checking him out? Was this what it was? Were you attracted to him? This wasn’t just a pity thing?

“Can I kiss you?”

Draco’s eyes widened and he felt his cheeks turn a rampant crimson. You must have noticed because you let out a soft giggle, pink colouring your own face.

“Of course! I mean.. sure, if you’d like to.”

And then you leaned upwards, connecting your lips to his. Soft, sweet, symphonic.

“I think that was quite possibly the best birthday present ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please do let me know what you thought of this fic :) Any and all feedback is much appreciated. Thank you for reading!


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